PC gaming taken for granted, but always there

August 17th, 2010

Every so often, some video game rag poses the same, tired question: "Is PC gaming dead?" In fact, this attention-grabbing discussion has been regurgitated and shared numerous times since the '90s by "who knows how many" people. Thanks to a pair of repeats, this month is no different.

"Is PC gaming dead?" asks Game Theory in straightforward fashion. "Thriving or dying," debate the always perceptive readers of the Gaming Age forums. Unsurprisingly, the answer is always the same: "Not what it used to be but still big." Like Microsoft.

The following reader comment, however, hits the nail on the head: "The PC is biding its time. After all, generations mean nothing to the PC. When we were all small and playing NES, there was the PC. When games became cool on the PlayStation, there was the PC. When games stopped being cool on the Wii, there was the PC. When current consoles become silicon tombstones, there will be the PC. There will always be the PC."

Not only does the above accurately chronicle the annals of PC gaming when compared to consoles, it explains how the platform dominates sales on occasion, before quietly returning to the shadows.

So instead of asking "if," why not ask "why"? Why isn't the PC what it used to be? And what would it take to reclaim the gaming throne, provided that's something players want it to do? It has its pros. How would you correct the cons?